


fellas, is it gay to hold hands with a wrothian?

by green_piggy



Series: bond writes for xbc femslash week 2021 [4]
Category: Xenoblade Chronicles X
Genre: F/F, Mild Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, References to Depression, [floss dances] my cross is Not happy lol, [ga buidhe voice] the fuck is an inch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29342688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_piggy/pseuds/green_piggy
Summary: On a rare day off for both of them, Casey and Ga Buidhe play some basketball together before going to the Sunshine Café.
Relationships: Avatar/Ga Buidhe
Series: bond writes for xbc femslash week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149800
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6
Collections: Xenoblade Femslash Week 2021





	fellas, is it gay to hold hands with a wrothian?

**Author's Note:**

> written for day 4's prompt "stress relief!" xeno x representation and peak of self-indulgence let's GOOOOO
> 
> i don't have the next two days fully finished and i'm very busy so i might be late posting/replying to comments - sorry for that, but please know that all the support so far has me TTATT thank you!! <3
> 
> some ref pics of my cross! [1](https://i.imgur.com/oDihdwa.jpg) [2](https://i.imgur.com/5hRQpzm.jpg) [3](https://i.imgur.com/Jkv3U3Y.jpg) she's a miserable little pile of secrets

The basketball  _ whacked  _ off the backboard and almost smacked Casey right in the face. Hell, if it wasn't for her (lack of) height, not even ducking would have saved her.

"Hey!" She threw a glare at the woman beside her before shuffling over to retrieve the basketball, which was now gleefully pinging down the road. "Be more  _ careful." _

Ga Buidhe just raised an eyebrow. The tank top that Casey had forced onto her was already ripped at her chest, from where the claw barely covering her breast had gorged through the thin fabric. Ah, well. Casey had at least sixty more tank tops to go through. One wouldn't be missed.

Jogging back, ball tucked underneath her arm as she walked back into the court — and what was her luck, really, that the ball went flying out of such a tiny gap? — Casey paused at the sight of Ga Buidhe pinging the court net as though it was a piece of string.

Casey coughed. Immediately, Ga Buidhe glanced up and pulled her hand back, laying it on her hip with a cough of her own.

“Cats will be cats, huh?” Casey teased.

Ga Buidhe’s nostrils flared. Maybe. It was kind of hard to tell from underneath the black mask she always wore. “We  _ Wrothians,”  _ she began, voice stony, “are nothing like these so-called ‘cats.’”

Of course, it was in that exact moment that a cat strode onto the court, languish, its fat belly swinging side-to-side, right before it laid on its side and began to play with the string of the net.

Casey snorted. Ga Buidhe’s face darkened. She pulled the ball from Casey’s grasp and stomped back to the spot where you aimed for a shot through the hoop. They probably had technical names, but it wasn’t as though Casey really cared enough about stuff like that.

Not that she cared much about anything, but… well.

Ga Buidhe pulled her arm back the same way she did while wielding her spear. Casey, who had been halfway through her drink, spluttered the water over the court before dropping it and sprinting over to her.

“Hey hey  _ hey —  _ not like that!”

She had her hand on Ga Buidhe’s bicep — and  _ what  _ a muscular bicep it was — and was gently pushing it down before she realised what she was doing. When she did, her heart gave a funny little flip, whatever the hell  _ that  _ was all about.

Ga Buidhe didn’t say anything, nor did she attempt to maul Casey for touching her without permission. Honestly, that was a pretty big thing. Casey chose to take that as a compliment.

“You gotta use both hands,” Casey continued. Pulling back, she brought her hands together before raising them over her hand, spraying her fingers out as though she was holding a ball. “And put one foot back, lean down on it—” She did all of her own instructions as she went through them. “—and  _ then  _ throw. Push yourself forward with your foot and flick your wrists at the same time.”

Ga Buidhe’s response was a slow blink. Slow blinking was a sign of trust from cats, right?

Still, she mimicked all of Casey’s movements; the ball soared through the air and  _ clanged  _ off the backboard. It rolled on the edge of the hoop before sliding in.

The basketball ponged against the ground, coming to a stop in front of Casey. She bent down, picked it up, and handed it back to Ga Buidhe with an approving smile.

“Nice work.”

“Ah… thank you.” Ga Buidhe took the ball and tucked it underneath her arm. Apparently getting a single ball in was satisfactory for her. She frowned, looking as though she wanted to say something. Growing up with a younger brother (don’t think about him  _ don’tthinkabouthim)  _ meant that Casey was more than a little bit familiar with having to prompt people to speak.

She raised her eyebrows and held her arms firmly at her sides, resisting the instinctive urge to cross them tight. “What is it?”

A wave of relief seemed to wash over Ga Buidhe’s face. Her eyes were almost kind when she opened her mouth, the fabric of her mask wrinkling into a shape like a smile. “Forgive me if this is a sensitive question, but… did you play much of this — ‘basketball’—” She gestured towards the hoop. “—back on Earth?”

Casey snorted. “I don’t mind, don’t worry. Not like I was particularly attached to that planet. But — nah. I’m barely five foot. You need to be at least six and a half foot to be any good at all.”

Ga Buidhe tilted her head. “...Foot?”

“Ah — on Earth, where I lived, you measured yourself in terms of the size of an average person’s foot size.”

Ga Buidhe blinked. Very slowly. That particular one probably  _ wasn’t  _ a display of trust.

“How strange,” she eventually murmured. “And how tall would I be in this form of measurement?”

“You’d be…” Casey looked her up and down, from her clawed boots to the top of her white hair. It was quite bizarre how humanoid the Wrothians were, especially the women. “About five foot and eight inches? A bit taller than the average woman.”

“I see.” There was a pause. “...And what, pray tell, is an inch?”

Casey sighed.

* * *

She was thirsty, and hungry, and her feet were aching, (and tired, but when was she  _ not?) _ so Casey took Ga Buidhe to Sunshine Café to grab lunch. Along the way, she explained as much as she could. Ga Buidhe took far more interest than she had expected her to, even though Casey knew that she was a terrible conversationalist. She was sullen and grumpy and didn’t speak a lot. It wasn’t self-depreciating. It was a simple fact.

Yet… something about Ga Buidhe’s eagerness made her talk so much that she surprised herself. By the time they came out of the café to find a table in the Barista Court, her throat was dry and raw.

“Thank you for paying for my meal,” Ga Buidhe said. She had several sandwiches and paninis and sweet treats overflowing in her arms — she was  _ really  _ indecisive, it turned out. Casey had bought everything that she had been agonising over just to get away from the increasing queue all glaring at them — and…

Hang on.

Was that a hint of a  _ blush  _ on her face? Peeking out from behind her mask?

“Is that unoccupied?”

Casey stopped just in time to avoid walking into a lamppost. “Huh?”

Ga Buidhe shuffled herself around a little and nudged an elbow. She looked as though she’d drop everything she was carrying if she lifted even a single finger. “Over there?”

“Oh — yeah.”

The chair squeaked under Casey as she flopped down on it. She placed the two drinks in her hands on the table, and pushed the red smoothie towards Ga Buidhe. “Mondcherry and Strawlenny. Be careful of the spice.”

“It sounds delightful. Thank you again.”

Casey’s fingers tightened around her cup of inky black. “You don’t need to keep thankin’ me. Really.”

Humming, Ga Buidhe began to release her various snacks over the table — a salad with some Lacey Potatoes sprinkled inside, a sandwich with Zandemo Eggplant carefully cut up as its filling, several extremely expensive Bananaleaf muffins, and more. She pulled down her mask so that it laid around her neck before picking up her cup. She gave it a little sip, her face soon breaking out into a surprised kind of joy.

Scoffing, Casey’s eyes flickered down to her own. She picked it up and took a long chug, draining at least half of it. The taste was ridiculously sweet, just the way she liked it, with a hint of bitterness that soon became strong. She swallowed down the sharp tang that followed afterwards.

“What drink is that?”

“Oh — this?” Casey bit her lip. “It’s a Nightmare Pineapple smoothie. I, uh, wouldn’t recommend it. I love the taste, but it gives a lot of nasty side-effects. A week of intense nightmares, an inability to sleep…” She ran her finger around the rim of the cup. “You can see why no one really gets it.”

Ga Buidhe frowned, and didn’t speak for a long while. Her eyes were sharp, boring on Casey in a way that made her want to shift uncomfortably in her seat. “Curious, that they would sell such an item at all,” she eventually said.

“Yeah, well.” Casey tried for a laugh. She didn’t usually drink with other people, end of. She didn’t have other people prodding her over crap like this, stuff that really didn’t matter. She should have just gotten a bottle of water. “Some people are a bit odd. Like to think they’re strong, that kind of stuff.”

“Does it give  _ you  _ nightmares?”

_ It’s nothing that I don’t deserve,  _ was her instinctive reply. But Casey was quick to bite down on that. “Nah.” She lifted the cup and drank the rest of it, never breaking eye contact with Ga Buidhe.  _ Say something about it,  _ she almost wanted to gloat.  _ I dare you. _

Ga Buidhe hummed. She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t say anything further. Instead, she pushed one of the Bananaleaf muffins over onto Casey’s side of the table. The tiny metal table, propped up by a single thin leg, wobbled with the force. “For you. Which meal would you like?”

“Eh — I’ll have whatever you’re not. I’m down for most things.” Food was food, after all. “Do you prefer bitter or sweet?”

“I am not particularly fussed, but… sweet, if I had to choose one.”

“You’ll want the sandwich, then. Zandemo Eggplants are dead bitter.”

“Ah… thank you.”

Taking the sandwich in hand, Ga Buidhe handed over the salad. Casey took it off her, tugged off the cover, took out the provided fork, and got to work. She didn’t  _ like  _ bitter food, but, well. What did the taste matter? She’d spoiled herself enough with the drink.

It was… awkward. Neither of them spoke a word as they ate. Casey tuned out and let the ambience of people chatting, from the buzz-like chirps of a passing Orphean gushing to a humming Zaruboggan, to a Prone talking to a Ma-non perched on their back. Bite. Swallow. Bite. Swallow.

Casey didn’t mean to be bad company. She just wasn’t good at — any of this. Ga Buidhe was probably just too polite to excuse herself and leave.

She pushed aside her half-eaten salad when Ga Buidhe finished off her sandwich. Ga Buidhe’s eyes snapped up from the bowl. Casey’s stomach churned, but not from hunger.

“Did you not like it?”

“Nah, I did.” Casey rested her cheek on her hand. “Just…” She tapped her fingers against herself. “Not as hungry as I thought, I guess.”

“Are you sure?” Ga Buidhe pulled her lips in before continuing. “You seem… subdued.”

“Just tired.”

_ Don’t push don’t push don’t push— _

“I would be happy to walk you back to your headquarters,” Ga Buidhe eventually said. “If you do not mind the company. If you would rather be alone…”

Casey blinked hard, forcing away the sudden tightness in her eyes. It took her several seconds before she could look up from the table at Ga Buidhe’s smile. “You don’t have to, but… I can’t stop you, can I?”

That smile widened.

Ga Buidhe stood, gathering up their rubbish and disposing of it in a nearby bin, while Casey sat there, unable to make herself move. When she came back, she stretched out a hand to help pull Casey up.

“Thanks.”

She was strong, even moreso than her appearance suggested, but Casey squeaked when Ga Buidhe didn’t let go. With her gloves on, Ga Buidhe’s hand felt just as human-like as any other, her sharp nails aside.

Just as human-like, and just as warm. It was a strangely reassuring sensation.

“You, uh.” Casey nodded towards their linked hands. “You know that this is. Uh. Romantic, right.”

“I do.”

…Huh.

It wasn’t as though she deserved such company, but Casey found that she was too exhausted to let go. She leaned slightly on Ga Buidhe’s arm as they walked out of the court, the heat from her side chipping away at the frost inside of her body.

She hated these moods. She hated that they came from nowhere and numbed her entire body as though she had become an iceberg.

But… today’s wasn’t so bad. Not while she had someone next to her.

**Author's Note:**

> [ [twitter](https://twitter.com/greenpiggles) ]
> 
> i'm running out of things to say here. drink some water. grab some food. sit up straight. unclench your jaw. have a great day! <3


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